The legacy of Peter Townsend

The legacy of Peter Townsend

Adrian Sinfield

Alan Walker

Carol Walker

Publisher:

Policy Press

DOI:10.1332/policypress/9781847427151.003.0001

This chapter details the personal and professional life of Peter Townsend who is regarded as one of the 20th-century's great champions of social justice. It notes that Peter dedicated his professional life to fighting poverty, inequality and injustice. It emphasises that this book stands as a tribute to that legacy, in partnership with the Peter Townsend reader (Walker et al, 2010). It further notes that it is unusual for academics to span other fields, as Peter did in campaigning and politics, but to contribute seminal texts to so many diverse aspects of social policy with regard to ageing, disability, poverty, health inequalities, human rights and international social policy is unheard of. It reviews Peter's scientific and campaigning biography, in order to provide background to the ones that follow as well as some historical context for those encountering Peter's work for the first time.

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